


Coffee. Right.

by Girls_Are_Just_So_Pretty



Category: Mamamoo
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Romance, Sarcasm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22420141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Girls_Are_Just_So_Pretty/pseuds/Girls_Are_Just_So_Pretty
Summary: All Byul wants is to get through college with a passing grade, but apparently the universe decides she was having too easy a time of it. Because of course it does.AKA The campus-wide Assassin game drags her into it kicking and screaming, and free coffee is just too hard to resist. And y'know. The girl is kinda cute. But the coffee is totally the goal here.
Relationships: Kim Yongsun | Solar/Moon Byulyi | Moonbyul
Comments: 16
Kudos: 65





	1. Down and Dirty in the Bushes

"Hey, uh. This might be a bad time to ask, but do you think you could explain to me exactly what the hell I'm doing hiding behind a bush with a total stranger?"

" _Shhh_ , keep it down."

"No but like, seriously? I'm supposed to be giving a presentation on the effects of boredom on the brain in," Byul struggles to free her phone from her back pocket, which, she absently notes, is probably now slathered in a thick layer of dirt and grass stains. Awesome. The device finally comes free after a short struggle and she groans at what she sees.

"Two minutes ago." Fantastic. That's the second time in as many months she's been late with a large assignment, and Byul doesn't think her professor is going to be nearly as understanding as last time.

"Dammit, the one time I'm actually kind of excited about an essay-" She was cut off suddenly by a hand firmly covering her mouth. Byul glares at the figure crouching above her (the girl isn't even bothering to look at her!), and in a move of pure spite she runs her tongue along the palm currently inhibiting her ability to lament the cruelties of life. It tastes like the dirt they're crouched in. Blech. The hand is quickly retracted and held out to the side to dangle limply in disgust.

"Eugh! What the hell?!" The girl whisper-yells, finally turning to face Byul with a glare. Byul rolls her eyes.

"Maybe if you'd bother explaining to me what I'm doing sitting next to a trash can that is long overdue for janitorial attention instead of passing my Psych class, I might be a little more inclined to play along!"

"Keep your voice down, you'll alert everyone to our position!"

"What the actual hell are you talking about?" The girl rolls her eyes and huffs in annoyance. Byul isn't really sure where the girl gets off acting like she's the one being put-upon when she's the one who's academic career is in jeopardy, but whatever.

"Ugh, fine. You're seriously out of the loop, aren't you?" Before Byul has the chance to open her mouth to throw out a snide comment in reply, the girl continues.

"The annual Assassin game started yesterday at noon." Byul has absolutely no idea what this girl is going on about.

"Haven't you been paying any attention at all within the past few months? Everyone's been talking about it." The girl, evidently having seen the blank look on Byul's face remaining unchanged, glances around for a moment before pointing to a flyer on the wall.

"Look, there's one of the sign up sheets over there. They're everywhere, how have you not seen them?"

"I don't know, maybe because I've actually been working my butt off trying to finish the presentation that I'm supposed to be doing. Right now. At this very moment."

"Would you shut up about your stupid paper for one second before you get me killed?" Wow, grumpy much? "As I was saying, we're in a campus-wide game of Assassin right now, which means the whole school is a battlefield, and I will _not_ have you ruin my chances by being oblivious." Byul finally takes note of the nerf gun strapped to her leg in a crude, makeshift holster. It looks like it's mostly just duct tape and different colored shoelaces fashioned into something that's kind-of-maybe more efficient than just carrying the toy would have been. Probably. Byul can't decide if she's impressed or just exhausted by the whole ordeal.

"Okay so you've got your nerdy murder game going on, whatever. I'm obviously not playing, so why exactly did you feel the need to drag me into the bushes with you?" The girl holds up a finger. "First, it's not nerdy. It's fun. And also the winner gets free coffee from the campus Starbucks for the rest of their college career. Do you know how much money that could save me?" Byul has to admit, that much free coffee is a pretty good incentive to do just about anything.

"Second, I dragged you down here because I need your assistance." Byul scoffs and braces her hand on her knee so she can stand up and see about begging forgiveness from her professor.

"No wait! Just hear me out, okay? At least a fourth of the players have already been taken out, and it's only been a day. If I'm going to make it through this I'm going to need another set of eyes and ears. If you help me out and I win, I'll personally bring you free coffee whenever you want, plus I'll get you off the hook with that presentation you're missing right now."

"You're the reason I'm missing it in the first place!"

"Oh please, the psych building is all the way across campus, there's no way you'd have gotten there in time before class started." The girl was right, but Byul would much rather blame her tardiness on this unfortunate confrontation than on her phone falling in the crack between her bed and the dorm wall. Again. She should really start putting it on her nightstand instead of beside her where her unconscious night flailing could endanger it.

"How would you even get me out of it? No amount of coffee can bribe my way back into the profs good graces." The girl cocks her head a bit, brow furrowing.

"You really are oblivious, aren't you? I'm the T/A for your class. Well, unofficially, but still. All I have to do is say I was having major technical issues with the copy machine and you were just kind enough to help me."

"Oh please, like that would actually work." The girl's features shift, and Byul immediately regrets saying anything. "Are you saying you _wouldn't_ stop and help a girl in need of saving from paper jams and ink blocks? Damn, and I thought I might've finally found my knight in shining skinny jeans." Byul can feel the tips of her ears heating up. Just a smidge. Oh dammit, what the hell.

"Ugh, fine. You win. But that better be some damn good coffee for all the trouble this is causing." The girl silently fist pumps. Jesus why.

"Haven't won yet. That's where you come in. Okay, so what do you know about the game so far?"

"Oh, just the fact that apparently it's completely normal for unsuspecting college students to be dragged into it against their wills. So nothing much, really."

The girl ignores her sarcasm.

"At the start of the game each player is given another players name at random. That person then has to hunt down and 'murder' their target. This can be done in all sorts of ways, like shooting them with nerf guns, or 'poisoning' them by putting hot sauce in their food. There's restrictions on when and where you can eliminate them, but we'll go over that later."

Wonderful.

"When your target falls, you get the name of the person your target was supposed to kill, and the game goes on. The goal of the game is to be the last one standing. Pretty straightforward." Byul nods slowly.

"Okay, that doesn't sound _too_ bad." Yes it does, but Byul refuses to acknowledge the large part of her mind that's screaming for her sanity. Unlimited free coffee and a passing grade is worth a little crazy.

There's a momentary pause in the conversation as the girl checks their surroundings, presumably for whoever has her name. "Wait, so the only person who can kill you is the person who drew your name?" The girl nods. "Well that makes things easier then, doesn't it? You just have to figure out who has your name and avoid them."

The girls eyes swivel back over to Byul's. "That's generally a good idea, but the problem is they don't have to be in line of sight to kill me. They just have to know where I'll be. Dorms aren't off limits, y'know."

No, Byul didn't know. That sounds like a safety violation. "Well that's dumb. And an invasion of privacy. How is anyone supposed to sleep when someone could break in to murder you at any moment?"

"You're not. Unless you can come up with a plan to secure your room, you're kinda screwed there."

Byul takes a good look at her face. There are bags under her eyes. They're faint, and Byul doubts she'd have noticed had she not been looking for them, but they're definitely there. "You haven't slept since this started, have you?"

"Nope. Great for amplifying paranoia." Byul fidgets and shifts her weight to her left side. "That's... Not healthy. Don't you have a roommate? Couldn't you take turns watching the door for intruders?" The girl pushes a rogue strand of hair back behind her ear roughly. She looks annoyed.

"That was the plan, but she ran into a family emergency on Friday and had to fly home for the week. Her little sister broke her ankle in a track accident and there's no one there to help take care of her. So we're out of luck in that department." Byul sighs and plops to the ground; the squatting position was getting really uncomfortable.

"Okay look, I don't know enough about the rules to come up with a solid strategy yet. How about we talk about this after my psych class? My calc class was cancelled, so I'm free for the rest of the day." The girl nods after a moment.

"Where's your room at?"

"What?"

"Room number? I have no safe place to hide right now. My room isn't safe, and I can't just hang out in the courtyard all day."

"Don't you have class or something?"

"I'm submitting my work over email for the duration of the game. They had too many people just skip class entirely in previous games, so they compromised this year." Byul groans and rubs her temple. Which probably means there's dirt on her face now. She just can't win today.

"Ugh. Okay fine, you can hang in my room today. But only if you promise not to go rummaging through my things." Byul digs through her bag and pulls the key out of the side pocket. "Room 19. Don't lose that please, I don't have a spare, and I'd really rather not have to explain to the office how I lost another key. They've already had to change the lock once this semester, and I don't have the money to pay for another one."

The girl takes the key and attaches it to her own sparse keyring. "There, I lose your key, I lose mine too. Now give me something to write on." She nods, clearly satisfied, and holds out her hand while making a grabby motion.

"Um, why?" Byul goes to grab a loose sheet of paper out of her bag without looking as she questions the girls intentions.

"Well, I was going to escort you to class, but that poses too much unnecessary risk. I'm just gonna send a note telling the professor that you're off the hook instead."

"You sure that'll work?" She uncaps her pen and starts writing, "Positive. So long as she forgets that I already copied those worksheets last week, everything'll be fine." Byul decides it's not worth the effort to be outraged at this omission and just nods along, wondering how the hell she ended up with such bad luck.

"Aaand there. You should be set. Alright, I'm gonna head on over to your room, you might wanna get going if you want to get to class before the period ends. We've already been here for about 45 minutes." Byul watches as she peeks around the shrub before standing and jogging off in the direction of the dorms.

Byul shakes her head violently before getting to her feet. She looks down at the folded note the girl hastily scribbled down; it wasn't very eloquently written, but Byul supposes it gets the job done. She finishes reading it, and just before she folds it back up, Byul catches sight of the signature at the bottom.

Finally realizing she never asked the girls name, Byul mentally face palms. She just gave her key to a complete stranger, and she doesn't even know her name. What is _wrong_ with her.

Focusing back on the name, she memorizes it in case she needs to file a report to campus police later when she comes back to her room to find all her stuff has been stolen. _Kim Yongsun._ Got it.


	2. Maybe Not so Bad After All

It doesn't take long for Byul to realize that most of the students aren't attending class. The note turned out to be basically moot; the professor wasn't even bothering to grade attendance, much less the presentation Byul had stayed up all night to finish. Byul spends what little time there is left in the class scanning the faces of those who bothered to show up. She only knows most of them in passing, but there are a few that stand out. 

“Hey Seulgi! Where is everyone?” Byul can guess that the rest of the students are hiding away in their dorms, plotting their targets demise - at least, that's what Byul would be doing in their positions - but she’d rather have someone she trusts explain it in case this turns out to be some type of prank. “Not totally sure, but If I had to guess I’d say they're all out doing the same thing as Seungwan.” 

Sooyoung pops her head over Seulgi’s shoulder. “You mean they're doing Joohyun? Because I’m not sure Seungwan would be okay with that many people putting the moves on her girl.” 

“Oi, I meant the game and you know it. Go back to doodling hearts around Yerim’s name or whatever it is you do in your free time.” Sooyoung places her hand over her heart like she’s been fatally wounded. “Excuse you! I don't doodle hearts, I carefully sculpt my feelings for her into an emblem of affection. Two totally different things. How dare you suggest I do something as meager as doodle in Kim Yerim’s name.” Byul watches as Seulgi rolls her eyes and pushes Sooyoung back into her seat by her face. 

"Hey watch it, this face is one of a kind," Sooyoung rubs at her cheek gently, a red spot forming vaguely in the shape of a hand print. Seulgi just shakes her head and turns her attention back to Byul, leaning her head on her arm as she does so. "Anyway, I don't know much about it, but Seungwan and Joohyun are in on it. They've been drawing up battle plans for weeks." She raises her free hand to put air quotes around "battle plans." Sooyoung pokes her head back around, "Yerim was playing too, but she got taken out pretty fast. Someone from dorm seventeen had her name I think. At least, I think that's what she said. She was destroying me at Mario Kart at the time, so I wasn't exactly taking notes." 

Byul sweeps her eyes over the room to make sure she hadn't somehow missed the young girl. "Don't bother, she's back in her room gorging herself on strawberry ice cream and lamenting her unfortunate demise." Byul cocks her head, "And why aren't you there with her? You two are basically attached at the hip. Plus, y'know. Ice cream and video games. Seems like a no-brainer." 

"I'd love to, but this one," Sooyoung jabs her thumb towards Seulgi, "dragged me out here. Something about keeping her sane or whatever. I'm so bored." 

"Oh please, it wasn't that bad. And you actually managed to get your calc assignment done for once. We have like two minutes until you can run back to your roomie, you'll live." Byul watches as Sooyoung throws her arms up in a stretch, her chair lifting off of the ground slightly at the action. "Gah, finally. This has been the longest day ever." 

Byul checks her phone to verify the time, and starts mentally going through her schedule to make sure she wasn't missing some big assignment or something. She doesn't think it'll be super fun trying to figure out how to bring her grade back up if she slips even a little this semester; she's struggling to keep up with the increased workload as it is. 

"Hey Byul, wanna come over and get absolutely destroyed in Mario Kart with us? Assuming you're finished with classes for the day, of course." Seulgi pipes up while closing her notebook and slipping it into her bag, "Seungwan and Joohyun would normally join us, but I doubt they're going to show with everything that's going on."

Byul is tempted to accept, but decides that leaving a stranger in her room without supervision is probably not the smartest move. "I'd love to, but I promised someone I'd be somewhere. Thanks for the invite though, maybe another time." "That's cool. You're welcome to come over any time though. We usually have a mini tournament at least once a week, and we hang out whenever we have free time."

Byul decides she'll definitely make an effort to make it to one. She doesn't have too many friends she can just crash in on and relax around, and she's determined not to squander the invitation. 

"I'll definitely try and make it sometime soon. It's about time for us to get going though, so I'll see you later I guess. Seulgi, you've got my number right?" 

Seulgi rises from her seat and nods. "Yep, I got you. I'll text you next time we get together. With the game going on, we might end up over at Yerim's more often. There's not gonna be much to do if every class is as dead as this one."

Byul makes her way across the almost eerily empty campus and, after taking a moment to decide, stops in to grab some food at the cafe. She doubts the girl has had much to eat all day, and there's certainly no food to raid back in Byul's room, so she grabs something for the both of them. It doesn't take too much longer for her to get back to her dorm, balancing two cups of coffee and a bag of Chinese food against her. 

It takes her a good minute to get her door open, and she figures Yongsun must have locked it. Almost immediately after Byul manages to shove her way through the door, a blur of movement by the right side of her head startles her into loosening her grip slightly. She whirls around to face the movement and immediately rears her head back, stumbling back into the open door and dropping the coffee tray. 

It's another moment before Byul breathes out heavily through her nose and rights herself.

"Christ on a goddamn cracker."

"I said I was sorry," Yongsun grumbles. "How was I supposed to know it was you and not someone breaking in to slit my throat? You sure made enough of a racket coming in."

Byul is too busy attempting to scrub the coffee out of her white shirt to acknowledge the sulky girl leaning against the tile of the bathroom. She knows it's useless; the shirt is too far gone to be saved. It doesn't stop her from trying though. Maybe if she borrows some bleach from one of her neighbors? 

Yongsun sighs for the umteenth time since Byul arrived, and she can see the girl tilt her head towards the ceiling through the reflection in the mirror. 

"Are you just going to keep ignoring me for the rest of time? At least yell at me for ruining your shirt or something." Yongsun stares expectantly at Byul for a few moments, presumably awaiting a reaction. When she doesn't get one, the girl scoffs and exits the bathroom without another word. 

As soon as the room is clear, Byul slumps against the sink and rubs her forehead. What the hell has she gotten herself into? 

Another minute passes before Byul emerges from the bathroom, having finally given up on removing the stain from the shirt for the time being. She makes her way down the hall and back towards her room, pulling her shirt away from her skin as she goes. 

"Hey, you feel like playing Sims?"

Startled, Byul raises her eyes from the discolored spot on her shirt and meets the gaze of Yongsun. She's currently peeking her head out from the doorframe of Byul's room. The younger girl stops in her tracks and stares at her. 

"You just ambushed me in my own home and held me at nerf gunpoint. And now you want to play a game with me?" Byul looks at her incredulously. 

"Sure, why not? It's not like you have anything better to do, right? Come on, I've been working on making a character for a while now. You should probably put a password on your laptop by the way." Yongsun disappears back into the room. 

Byul takes a minute to process what just happened, and then takes the last few steps toward the room to find the girl sitting cross-legged on Byul's bed with her computer sitting on her lap. 

She just sighs and grabs a shirt from a basket of clothes Byul had yet to fold. Making sure the girls eyes were glued to the screen, Byul quickly turns and sheds the ruined shirt before throwing on a clean blue one. 

Wait. 

"How the hell did you even get in? I do have a password on that," Byul spins around and furrows her eyebrows. 

The girl grins. "Finally caught on to that, didya? Come sit," she pats the spot next to her, the Create A Sim music emerging from the crappy speakers. 

Byul throws the dirty shirt into an almost full basket by the corner of the room and makes her way over to her bed. Cautiously plopping down next to Yongsun, she's almost immediately assaulted with the laptop. 

"Oi, watch it!" Byul steadies her computer on her knees. "This piece of junk costs more than I can afford right now. Or ever, really. No throwing it, please."

"Oh shush, look." Yongsun leans over the end of the bed for a moment, "I managed to save one of the coffees and just about all of the takeout." She pulls the items back up with her when she straightens, and hands Byul one of the food containers. "Plenty of food left, but we'll have to share the coffee. At least, until I win the game. Then we can just rig it up to where we inject it straight into our bloodstream, no cups required." 

Byul chuckles and removes the lid from the container. "Did you manage to save the chopsticks too? Or are we gonna have to use pencils as substitute? Because I've never tried it but I guess there's a first time for everything," Byul shrugs. 

"Ah, I'd love to see you try. Maybe another time though, they're around here somewhere." Yongsun hands her the coffee and leans back over the bed for another moment. "Ah-hah, there we are." Righting herself again, she chucks a set of chopsticks at Byul. 

"Come on, start working on your Sim already. I finished mine up while you were taking your sweet time getting your butt over here."

"Excuse me for not wanting to sit in a soaked shirt," Byul retorts. "Might've been fun for you though, who knows."

Yongsun starts in on her food, making an appreciative noise at the first bite. "I wouldn't have minded the view of course," She says around the mouthful, "but it's probably better this way. Wet clothes start to chaffe after a while. Not fun."

Byul grins and begins working on her own food. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"So wait, if I'm getting roped into this, I'm gonna need to know everything you do," Byul gestures toward Yongsun with her chopsticks while she speaks.

"Ugh, can't we wait until after we eat? I'm starving. Plus I spent like an hour on that Sim and I want to at least get her in a house before I abandon her for the day." 

"Okay, I think I can wait for a bit. But we're talking about this at some point tonight. I can't help you if I don't know what's going on," Byul points out. 

Yongsun nods and grabs a napkin from the bag before wiping her mouth. "Yeah of course. I'll explain in a bit, promise. For now though," a devious grin spreads across her face and she leans in closer to the screen. "I can't help but notice you have the pets expansion. We're totally getting a dog. Or three."

"I like the way you think."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Eclipse. She's actually trying to kill us, huh?
> 
> Also, I'm in the middle of watching Hotel Del Luna and oh my actual god it's amazing. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. 
> 
> I really need to get to sleep. Sorry if there are any typos or mistakes, I'm too tired to edit right now but I wanted to get this up.


	3. Late Night

"I can't believe you named him Daebak."

"Well what was I supposed to call him? It's what I'll be saying every time I see him anyway, might as well just make it official."

Byul dodges the foot that almost pushes her off of the bed and shoots Yongsun a grin, rolling back onto her stomach to get comfortable again. "Careful there, can you really afford to take care of Daebakie all by yourself? I mean, my character is the only one with a job that actually pays decent money."

"Oi, just because you went straight for the criminal branch and started barreling your way through it's ranks doesn't make you the boss around here." Yongsun shifts the blanket back into place from where her sudden attack earlier threw it to the side. 

Byul rolls her eyes and helps pull it back up; the girl has been complaining about it being freezing for hours now. "Oh yeah? And how is your level four skill in every instrument imaginable supposed to help feed the dog, huh?"

Yongsun props her head up with her hand and glares at Byul, a sight she's becoming alarmingly familiar with in such a short time frame. 

"Can you play Fur Elise on every instrument? No? Then shut up and get back to swiping things." She returns her gaze back to the screen and pouts. "We only have sixteen hours until our electricity is shut off. Go steal something from the Goths or something. We need like 400 more simoleons."

"We wouldn't be in this situation if you had spaced out your instrument purchases. Those things cost as much as the bills for like three months."

Yongsun pushes at Byul's forehead with her fingertips. "Can it. I got you out of a bad grade in Psych, didn't I? The least you could do is let me have this." 

Byul scoffs, "actually, you didn't. Turns out none of the teachers are actually bothering to put in the effort of doing their jobs while all of this is going down." She knocks Yongsun's hand away from her face and grabs a pillow from the floor where it had fallen some time during their flailing to find comfort on the cheap mattress. 

"Huh, well I guess that doesn't really surprise me much. It's a bit of a bummer that I'm missing out on all the fun, but I guess free coffee is worth more than any slacking off in class is."

Placing the pillow behind her head, Byul shifts to lay on her back and crosses her legs to where her feet are resting on the wall, right next to her poster of Sigmund Freud with the caption, 'your mom.' She has some mixed feelings about it hanging over her bed, but the room is too small for it to really go anywhere else. Adding that it had been a gift from one of her favorite teachers from back in high school, she doesn't feel quite right about taking it down. 

"Hey, why don't you explain the rest of the rules to me. If I'm gonna help you win this thing, I need to know how to play."

Yongsun looks up from where she's trying to rearrange the living room of their small in-game house. "I mean, I've pretty much told you the basics of how the game works. A player gets another player's name and has to eliminate that person from the game before they themselves are taken out."

Byul turns her head to look at the girl sitting next to her. "Yeah, I got that much at least. So who's name do you have?"

"I'm not super worried about going on the offensive for the time being, but I drew Minatozaki Sana for a target. I think she's one of the girls in building two, all the way across campus." She gestures vaguely in the direction of the building, and frowns in concentration. 

"Actually now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure their entire dorm building is playing. I wonder how that's going for them." Yongsun furrows her brow, "That could actually be a pretty dangerous situation, both for them and for anyone attempting to take one of them out."

Byul copies her facial expression subconsciously. "How so? I mean, I get how it would be hard for us to get in if they have the whole building on lockdown, but why would it be dangerous for them? Safety in numbers and all that. They might even get some sleep."

"The targets aren't publicly announced. If one of the girls drew another Team Twice member, the whole thing would fall to pieces. I think there's around nine or ten of them in there. That's a lot of chances for someone to draw the wrong slip," she explains. 

Byul hums and thinks it over for a minute. "That makes sense. I guess I'll keep an ear out and see if I can find out anything about that situation. Oh, I had a chat with Seulgi and Sooyoung earlier; apparently their three dorm mates are all playing too. Well, they were all playing. They said Kim Yerim was taken out already."

Yongsun closes the lid to the laptop and sets it on the ground beside the bed, careful to make sure neither of them would step on it if they get up. "Well, that's one more player I don't have to worry about at least. Did they say who got her?"

"Pretty sure it was someone from dorm seventeen."

Yongsun was quiet for a moment. "I'm not sure how many of them signed up. They have an even bigger number than building two, and I'm not sure how well they'd fare with a game of chance stacked that far against them. That's assuming they stuck to the same strategy as Team Twice, though."

She turns to Byul, "that's got to be one of your main missions from now on. Finding out who's playing and what their status is could be imperative to our victory. Intel gathering, if you will."

Wonderful. 

Byul sighs, but acquiesces. "Okay, I guess. So we're playing defense for right now. Easy enough to do, you don't really need to leave the room for much." Hm. Well, Byul guesses that depends. "Hey, what exactly are the rules on weapons? Your explanation from earlier made it sound like I could throw a paper airplane at someone and they'd be counted among the fallen."

"Actually, yeah that could work." At Byul's derisive snort Yongsun chuckled. "No, really. The weapon rules are extremely lenient. As long as there are no actual weapons or anything that looks real, anything goes. There is a catch though, anything that's intended to be a weapon in the game has to be clearly marked as such." 

She rolls over to the side of the bed where her pile of nerf guns lay and grabs one of the pouches before rolling back into her previous position. She holds up a bright orange nerf dart between her thumb and her pointer finger. 

"You see how bright and noticeable this is? Every intended weapon has to have at least two square inches of neon orange painted on it. If not, the kill is considered invalid."

"Well that makes things a bit more interesting. I assume that's to make sure someone doesn't claim a 'weapon' that wasn't intended to be one. So the player doesn't get a free kill," Byul ponders. 

Yongsun nods, "That's partially why. There are other reasons for it, like giving players a fair chance to notice that there's something potentially about to remove them from the game right in front of them, but yeah that's about right."

"Okay, so just watch out for bright orange. That doesn't seem too hard."

Yong throws the dart at Byul's face and it bounces off of her right cheekbones, making her flinch a bit. "You know, you're very violent for someone who is making my life harder than it needs to be."

Yongsun blinks up at her with innocent eyes. "It's part of my charm."

She's fooling no one. Almost as soon as she finishes speaking she flops towards the other side of the bed, leaving her legs to land right on Byul's stomach. 

"Guh!" The impact knocks the breath out of her. "And where exactly is the charm? All I'm seeing is your foot in my face and the loss of my internal organs."

"Guess you're not looking hard enough then."

"No, I'm pretty sure that's a foot." Byul pokes at it and Yong quickly snatches her appendage back from her clutches. The blonde turns and smacks Byul in the stomach with a stray sweatshirt that Byul had left laying on the chair at her desk. 

"Anyway," she continues as if she hasn't just assaulted Byul with her own clothing, "It's not always super noticeable that something's being used as a weapon. See, I'm using nerf guns because it was what I happened to have on hand. The guns and darts are already bright and flashy because that's how they came, no adjustments needed. All you actually need is the set two square inches of orange for it to be legal. On, say, a bomb, that's almost impossible to spot if it's hidden well."

Bomb? It hasn't even occurred to Byul that explosives were even a factor. 

"How would a bomb even work?"

"The rules described it as something that explodes with clear intention. So like, an automatic confetti cannon or something like that. Just anything that makes itself clear that it's meant to be a bomb without actually causing any real harm."

"Ugh, things keep getting more complicated the more I hear."

"Suck it up, you're not the one who's actually in danger of being assaulted with those things you throw at your friend's feet on the fourth of July."

Byul squints. "You mean like poppers, or pop-its or whatever they're called? The little white things that explode when they hit the ground?" She holds up her thumb and her pointer finger close together, trying to somehow project the image in her mind out into the world. 

"Uh, yeah I guess. Something like that at least. I don't think I actually know what they're called, now that I think about it." Yongsun stares at the water-stained ceiling in what appears to be perplexed concentration.

She shakes her head after a moment and looks back over to meet Byul's eyes. "Dunno. Anyway, I think I'm probably due for a couple hours of sleep." She drops her head into the blanket below her, and Byul can barely make out what the muffled sounds coming out of the girl's mouth mean. "It's been a pretty long couple of days and I'm kind of exhausted." 

"Oh, yeah I guess you do look pretty tired." Byul sits up and makes to leave the room.

"Wow, you sure know how to flatter someone, huh. Anyway, where are you going?"

Byul halts in slipping her casual shoes on and looks back to the bed. "I was just gonna go over to Eunbi's room a few doors down for the night. Let you get some rest without me being in your way."

Yongsun sits up and furrows her brow. "Oh, um. Okay then. I wasn't trying to kick you out of your own room or anything. I can always sleep on the floor if I'd be bothering you?"

Byul hesitates for a bit before shaking her head slightly. "No, don't worry about it. Go ahead and take the bed, and I'll be back first thing in the morning. If you need me, just come find me- or, wait. Phones are a thing. Can you toss me mine?" Yong nods and fumbles along the blanket for a moment before finding it and lightly throwing it into Byul's waiting hands. 

"Cool, thanks. What's your number?"

Yong recites the number by memory and Byul makes a new contact under 'Crazy Coffee Girl' before saying goodnight and shutting the door behind her. It takes another moment for her to start moving again, but when she does it's with a new sense of determination. 

Even if this whole game is completely ridiculous, Byul is going to do everything she can to ensure the victory of the strange girl in the room behind her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the absence, life got in the way big time. I'll do my best to get the next chapter up sooner. I'm so incredibly tiredddddd
> 
> Thanks for reading

**Author's Note:**

> This game is an actual thing btw. I stumbled on the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_\(game\)) for it a while back, and it's been on my mind ever since.


End file.
